South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
US sues Roger Stone for $2M in unpaid income taxes
The U.S. government is suing Roger Stone and his wife, Nydia B. Stone, for nearly $2 million in unpaid income taxes and interest.
The liabilities include nearly $1.6 million from joint tax returns they filed for the tax years 2007 to 2011, plus more than $400,000 Roger Stone owes individually from 2018, Bloomberg reported.
The federal complaint was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Stone, a longtime ally and confidante of former President Donald Trump, was convicted in 2019 of all seven counts in a federal indictment that accused him of lying to Congress, tampering with a witness and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.
After the indictment, the Stones created a trust and used funds through a company they controlled, Drake Ventures LLC, to buy their Fort Lauderdale home in the name of the trust, the complaint says. They stopped making monthly scheduled installment payments of about $20,000 to the IRS, leading the IRS to terminate an installment agreement it had with them, the complaint says.
They evaded the IRS’ collections efforts by depositing and transferring funds into the Drake Ventures’ accounts instead of their personal accounts, the complaint says.
“Although they used funds held in Drake Ventures accounts to pay some of their taxes, the Stones’ use of Drake Ventures to hold their funds allowed them to shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle despite owing nearly $2 million in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties,” the complaint says.
“They used Drake Ventures to receive payments that are payable to Roger Stone personally, pay their personal expenses, shield their assets, and avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS,” the complaint says.
Former President Donald Trump commuted Stone’s prison sentence connected to the criminal charges and later granted him a pardon.